When the winners and losers of the Feb, 27 NHL trade deadline get sorted out, it will be important to remember the work that Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman has done well in advance of the final-day frenzy.

Yzerman began business on Thursday, sending pending unrestricted free agent Dominic Moore and a seventh-round draft pick to the San Jose Sharks for a second-round selection in the 2012 NHL draft.

Two days later, Tampa Bay traded defenseman Pavel Kubina, another free-agent-to-be, to the Philadelphia Flyers for a second-round pick in either 2012 or 2013, a 2013 fourth-round choice and minor league left wing Jon Kalinski.

Tuesday, the Lightning took part in a rare three-way trade with the Avalanche and Red Wings, shipping Steve Downie, a restricted free agent come July, to Colorado, and getting Detroit’s 2012 first-round pick along with minor league defenseman Sebastien Piche.

That’s a first-round pick, two second-rounders, a fourth-round selection and two players for the system, acquired in exchange for two guys who could have walked away for nothing, a player in Downie who would have been in line for a decent raise and a seventh-round draft choice.

“Hard to question one of the greatest players of our time,” an NHL source told Sporting News. “He knows the game 1000 times more than I ever will.”

As Wayne Gretzky could attest, though, there is a big difference between knowing the game on the ice and knowing how to run a team. Yzerman, already in the Hall of Fame as a player for his 692-goal career in Detroit from 1983-2006, went about pursuing his second career the right way. He served as vice president and alternate governor for the Red Wings from his retirement until 2010, and assembled the gold medal-winning roster for Canada at the 2010 Olympics. With Detroit GM Ken Holland going nowhere anytime soon, Yzerman had to leave the Red Wings to further his executive ambitions, and found the right fit in Tampa after turning down the Minnesota Wild.

“Stevie was taught by the best!” another NHL source gushed about Yzerman in a text message.

Now, just as he did on the ice, Yzerman is outmaneuvering his foes in the general managers’ suites. He was smart not only to see the seller-friendly trade atmosphere, but to take advantage of it before more teams could flood the market. As a result, Tampa Bay will have its own pick high in the first round in June, along with the selection from Detroit and either three or four choices to make in the second round.

The beauty of having all of those picks—and Tampa Bay has until Monday to stockpile more—is that when it comes time for the draft, Yzerman will have a choice to either bolster the Lightning’s prospect base with quantity or to package some of his picks to grab another potentially in the top 10.

“If we have draft-related or trade-related options to acquire some players, we have some flexibility,” Yzerman told reporters in Tampa during a Tuesday press conference. “We can hang on to some of those picks and if a move comes up where a team is looking to move a player, there’s a lot of options for us. When we get to the draft, we can move up or move down and do a lot of different things. … Any potential opportunity that comes along and makes sense, we’ll consider using those picks to do them.”

When Teemu Selanne scored his 20th goal of the season on Sunday at Florida, it was not only his 657th career tally, moving him past Brendan Shanahan and into the No. 12 spot on the all-time list, it also was the goal that stood up as the game-winner as the Anaheim Ducks went on to a 2-0 victory over the Panthers.

After Tuesday night’s 3-2 loss at Tampa Bay, the Ducks are in 13th place in the Western Conference, six behind the eighth-place Los Angeles Kings. That is not too shabby, considering that after a 3-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks on January 4, Anaheim was 19 points adrift—and only one point up on the Columbus Blue Jackets at the foot of the standings.

Having already made a coaching change from Randy Carlyle to Bruce Boudreau, trade rumors swirled around the Ducks, including whether the 41-year-old Selanne might waive his no-trade clause for a shot at another Stanley Cup. General manager Bob Murray stayed the course, though, and now Anaheim is putting together a run worthy of their cinematic namesakes.

“Every player is very much appreciative of what our management has done with the players,” Selanne said. “Obviously, the coach got fired, and we feel really sorry about that because it was our fault. But our GM has been so patient with our players, and believing in this group, not just doing a yard sale to get rid of the players. That’s why I think this team has really come together and healed together. I really hope we can go all the way. It’s an unbelievable story, and I think that when you go through some tough times as a group, when you turn things around, this team is so strong mentally and believes in each other.

"You never know how far you can go. Hopefully we didn’t put ourselves too far behind to come back. So far, so good, but the last five or six points are the hardest to get. I really believe this team can do it.”

Conventional wisdom would dictate that if the Ducks do complete their run and fulfill Sporting News’ preseason prediction of a Stanley Cup, it would be the perfect way for Selanne to end his legendary career. But then, conventional wisdom also would dictate that Selanne already would be comfortably retired as he approaches his 42nd birthday in July.

“I’m surprised at how good I feel,” Selanne said. “It’s not easy to compete at this level, at this age, but you know what? Most of the nights, I feel great. That’s why I’m still around. I enjoy this game. … The last five or six years, I always tried not to think about too much during the season what my plan is going to be. You get the whole picture of the season and see how much you really enjoyed it, how your body feels and everything. Then it’s the time to make a decision. I really enjoy this game and coming to the rink every morning. That’s what it takes.”

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3. Ducks in flight

While Selanne is all but certain to remain in Anaheim for the remainder of his career, however long it may be, the same cannot be said of a group of Ducks who have spent the season going back and forth across North America, shuttling between Southern California and the Ducks’ AHL affiliate in Syracuse.

Nobody has made the transcontinental journey more often than forward Jean-Francois Jacques, who has been in Syracuse since Feb. 2 after his ninth demotion of the season. Add in Jacques’ nine recalls to Anaheim, and that's 18 times that he has been part of a roster shuffle, although the first five did come between Oct. 26 and 31, meaning he probably did not have to fly all the way to Syracuse, then turn back around to return to the NHL.

Nate Guenin has had to make the flights, but the defenseman—who was sent back down on Sunday for his ninth appearance on the transactions wire this season—is looking at the positive side of his saga.

“I’m racking up quite a few miles, so I’m going to save those up for the summer,” Guenin told Sporting News before his latest trip back to Syracuse. “I haven’t counted how many times, but I’ve done at least five trips back and forth. I’m definitely logging those into the frequent flier mile account. They’re good about getting us an aisle seat, an exit row if possible—a lot of legroom. Not too many middle seats—that would be a long flight in the middle.”

For that, Guenin made sure to give special thanks to Maureen Nyeholt, the Ducks’ senior manager of hockey operations, who is tasked with booking what has to be the majority of the airline industry’s trips between Anaheim and Syracuse. There are no direct flights to be had.

“It’s usually a change in Chicago or something,” said Nick Bonino, who has been up or down five times. “It kind of stinks going the other way‚it stinks when you’re going from Anaheim to Syracuse instead of Syracuse to Anaheim. … I was first-class once because it was so last minute. I was on the plane and Russell Brand was sitting in first class with me. That kind of felt like a big deal, but that was the first leg of it, and then when we connected, I was back in economy. It was kind of fun to do that one.”

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4. Home cooking

After losing in Chicago on Tuesday night, the Detroit Red Wings will return home on Thursday to face the Vancouver Canucks and try to extend their record home winning streak to 24 games.

One amazing thing about the Red Wings’ historic run is that since their last loss at Joe Louis Arena, a 4-1 defeat to the Calgary Flames on Nov. 3, they only have the second-most points at home in the NHL. The St. Louis Blues have gone 24-2-4 for 52 home points over the course of Detroit’s streak, part of a Central Division where familiar ice seems to make all the difference.

For the season, the five teams of the Central are a combined 103-34-16 on home ice, with 19 of the 50 losses belonging to the Columbus Blue Jackets (11-16-3). The other four teams—Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago and Nashville—are a combined 92-18-13 in front of their own fans.

There is a reflection of history in what is happening. When the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens went 33-1-6 at the Forum, the Philadelphia Flyers were 33-6-1 at the Spectrum. The difference was that the Habs were in the Wales Conference, while the Broad Street Bullies dominated the Campbell Conference.

The Red Wings that year were on the wrong end of some of that home-ice dominance, going a combined 0-5-1 in Montreal and Philadelphia en route to 4-33-3 road record. Detroit’s final win away from home that season was on December 12, a 5-3 triumph at the Boston Garden. Sometimes history has a way of evening itself out.

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5. Mail call

“We are more than halfway through the season and I am curious what the reaction is amongst players and coaches about how Brendan Shanahan is handling the disciplinary actions. Will the players’ support/concerns have any impact on the upcoming CBA negotiations from your perspective?”—Christine L. Mendonça

Shanahan’s standing as a future Hall of Famer—and one who played a physical game, racking up 2,489 penalty minutes to go along with his 656 goals—gave him the respect of the current players as he entered his new job as the league’s disciplinarian. He has not let that good will slip away.

Players have appreciated Shanahan’s video explanations of his decisions, which are posted on the NHL’s website and usually shown on the NHL Network’s daily highlight show, which is popular with players even if their on-the-record pronouncements tend to be about paying attention only to what their team is doing. The transparency that Shanahan has added to NHL discipline, incomplete though it may be, has gone a long way toward generating support for the job that he is doing.

All of that said, supplemental discipline will come up in the CBA discussions. The NHLPA is understandably unhappy about a system in which the league has the power to unilaterally punish players, costing them games and paychecks. Union director Donald Fehr comes to hockey from baseball, of course, and the MLB system bears a much greater resemblance to a justice system, with players having the right to file appeals and get their punishments reduced. Bringing something similar to hockey likely will be on the union’s checklist when it comes time for labor negotiations.

The tradeoff is that while supplemental discipline is a one-sided process, offenses that do not rise to the level of suspensions can be punished with a maximum fine of $2,500. If the league is to grant the union a greater voice in suspensions, the compromise could be to install greater variability in the way that the NHL dips into players’ wallets for midlevel misdeeds.